Rogue 1 has left story land. The depth of the plot(s), the character development, the cinematography, the editing - all were superb - rendering this the first star wars that was believable in the sense of realism of human emotions, reaction, success, failure, pain and happiness. I did not feel like I was in a mother goose tale. Rather, it felt more like 'Saving Private Ryan'.
Yes the droid reminded me of TARS from 'interstellar'. Not a cartoon droid but rather a believable instance of what AI might give us. Although I imagine google might give a 'googly' AI that sounds like C3PO.
The various parallel story lines did not just converge to a happy ending - rather they meandered like a swarm of fireflies coming close and then diverging - a closer simulacrum of real life. A flavor of 'Westworld' but less somber, even though there was more death. Still I did not feel the portrayal of conflicts were cartoonish - no silliness like JarJar getting run over by a tank with humorous intent. no, battles are not funny and it is impossible to laugh in the real thing.
This is not a Star Wars for little children. There is not a lot of comic relief. The losses that some of the actors endure could affect sensitive children adversely. But adolescents are probably well equipped to engage the diverse emotions and understand them.
The use of close cropped shots, the darker scenes, the use of depth of field to isolate the character reinforced the sense of urgency with claustrophobic and sometimes uncomfortable angles of cinematography. The colors were great with good evocation of mood without over saturation or any of that JJ Abrams stuff (shaking, flare, bright spots, etc) Even the entry and exit to hyperspace was more believable than the star smearing psychedelic light show we have been trained to expect.
All of this and also a nice explanation of how one star wars movie led to another with the appropriate facts to build continuity. If you are the OCD kind of fan that keeps tracks of details, even the alien characters were pulled from the same species of other star wars movies - and these similarities anchored this movie in the same universe as the other movies. Sometimes tho the facts were a little to 'in your face'. The sight of Princess Leia and the spooky verisimilitude to what we remember was jarring. A little bit like seeing someone resurrected from the dead.
I can't wait till I see it again.